The Austin African American Book Festival will be Saturday, June 24 from 9:00 – 4:00 at the George Washington Carver Museum, Cultural and Genealogy Center Center.

On June 22 at 6:30, New York Times best-selling author Angie Thomas will be at the Carver to discuss her novel @The Hate U Give at a pre-festival event. The book, which sparked a bidding war and shot to number one on the best seller list, will soon be made into a motion picture starring Amandla Stenberg of the Hunger Games.

Saturday’s keynote speaker is Dr. Peniel E. Joseph, historian and founding director of the LBJ School’s Center for the Study of Race and Democracy. Among his many publications are Stokely: A Life, and Dark Days, Bright Nights: From Black Power to Barack Obama. His career focus has been on “Black Power Studies,” which encompasses interdisciplinary fields such as Africana studies and political science. Joseph is a frequent commentator on CSPAN, NPR, and PBS’s NewsHour.

Educator and editor-at-large for Salon, D. Watkins will discuss his books including The Cook Up: A Crack Memoir, this inspiring true story was a New York Times best-seller and an O Magazine best summer book.

This year festival organizers present their first throwback featured author to recognize and pay homage to classic works by African American writers. The AABF is happy to announce April Sinclair, whose novel Coffee Will Make You Black, is a humorous coming of age tale set in the Civil Rights Era. The novel was selected as the 1994 Young Adult Book of the Year by the American Library Association.

Saturday will include a new author showcase and two community discussions. Dr. Jennifer Wilkes will lead the discourse on I Am Not Your Negro, the documentary based on James Baldwin’s unfinished manuscript. Dr. Mark Cunningham will facilitate the dialogue of Get Out, Jordan Peele’s comic horror picture.

The Austin African American Book festival is annual event that promotes literature and arts by and about African Americans. It is free and open to the public.